Freewill couple seeks protection from police

Karachi: A newly-married couple said on Saturday they were being threatened by police officials with dire consequences for marrying against the wish of the girl’s “influential parents”.

Abdul Razzak, 24, and Umm-e-Kulsoom, 18, got married on March 8 at the City Courts in Karachi after they fled their hometown of Tando Allah Yar, where the well-connected father of the girl was “bent upon killing us”.

“My family in Tando Allah Yar can’t get out of the house; they are being psychologically tortured by the DPO and SHO of the area, just because I married the daughter of the Kambo clan,” said Razzak, who hails from the Jut family, at a press conference at the Karachi press club.

The couple alleged that the girl’s family bribed the police to register two false FIRs against the man, only to cook up excuses to hound them.

“I came out of the house on my free will, nobody kidnapped me, but my father and his friends have falsely accused my husband of kidnapping me and my sister, which is a totally fabricated claim,” said Kulsoom.

The man and woman were neighbours in Tando Allah Yaar, where they fell in love and decided to get married.

They claimed that few months back, Razzak approached the parents of the girl to ask for her hand but Kulsoom’s family refused outright, saying that they did not allow marriage of their girls outside the clan. When Kulsoom insisted on marrying Razzak, her parents and brothers beat her up. “Then I decided to flee from home and get married (with Razzak),” said Kulsoom.

The couple distributed their Nikah Nama among journalists after the conference and asked what justification the police had to harass them when the court had accepted their freewill marriage.

The couple urged the government to provide them with protection and demanded the immediate arrest of the “corrupt DPO and SHO” of Tando Allah Yaar Town.